The Night Shift

THE NIGHT SHIFT

Karen drove to work feeling slightly anxious about the first day at her new job. She had never been a security officer before and did not know what to expect. The man who was to be her new supervisor, Sergeant Greg Smith, sounded like an interesting guy. Lieutenant Beck, Sgt Smith’s boss had mentioned that she and Greg might have some things in common. She hoped their common interests might make it easier to get along with him from the start.”

As she approached Helix Inc., the medical facility where she was to be posted, she saw two men in the parking lot who were wearing the same dark red blazer with gray pants she herself wore. “It must be the changing of the guard.” She mused to herself.

After parking her car, she made a point of introducing herself to the other officers.

“Hi, I’m Karen.” She said, extending a slender hand toward a tall, heavyset man and simply nodding to the other one.

“How ya doin?” asked the heavyset man. “You must be our new officer…Did Becky, err, ahh, Lt Beck put you on with Smitty…oh, I mean Sgt Smith tonight?”

“Yes. I understand he’s particularly good.” She said quickly.

“That all you heard?” Asked the other officer.

Karen looked puzzled at the unexpected comment.

“What do you mean?” She probed carefully.

“Oh, nothing. He can be a little strange sometimes, that’s all…nothing to worry about though. See ya later.” He said, waving at Karen and pulling the other officer along with him.

Karen looked at the two officers as they walked away, realizing that she had not gotten their names and neglected to properly introduce herself to the other officer.

“I’m off to a good start.” She thought to herself and walked swiftly toward the entrance to the facility.

When she arrived at the guard’s desk situated in a tiny alcove in the front lobby, she saw a round-faced man in a security uniform similar to hers, who she presumed was her new boss. Taking a breath and squaring her shoulders, she walked up to the man and said, “I’m Karen Angst. I have heard some nice things about you.”

Sgt Smith just smiled like a long-toothed tiger and put out a meaty hand towards Karen.

“Nice to make your acquaintance. Have you done security work before?” He asked pointedly.

“No, I haven’t.” She said stiffly.

For no apparent reason, she felt a mild chill run up her spine. It was just an odd sort of feeling about this man. But she passed it off as her own insecurity about what he would expect of her.

“I trust you have been through the basic training course at the main office, right?”

“Basic training? Oh, yes, yes, I have.” She responded nervously.

“No worries. We will go over everything and you will catch on quickly, I’m sure.”

During the next few moments of awkward silence, Karen had decided to sit down in an empty seat next to the guard desk. Sgt Smith spoke shortly thereafter,

“We are a little short-handed tonight. Normally we would have another officer here to help train you so we will have to wing it as we go along. You will have to bear with me and take in as much as you can, okay?”

“I will try.” Said Karen.

“Good” Said Smith, smiling more to himself than to her.”

No one spoke for several moments, and Karen started to fidget with some paper clips on the desk she was sitting at. When the training will start, she wondered, but kept silent. After what seemed to be a long while to her, Sgt Smith pulled out a large loose-leaf binder that had the words, “Post Orders” written in large bold letters on the side. Karen did not know what post orders were and said: Do we deal with the post office?

“Excuse me?” Said Smith.

“Oh, I just thought post orders meant something to do with the Post Office.”

“I thought you said they trained you at the main office?!” Said Smith accusingly.

“Oh, they did, but…” Karen’s voice trailed off.

“Never mind!” He snapped. “This facility is your post and this book contains all the policies and procedures that our client, Helix, Inc. wants us to carry out.”

“Oh.” She said embarrassed.

“I want you to know these policies backward and forwards, so you sit there and read them. If you have any questions, just ask.”

Now she felt intimidated. It was such a large book, and she did not know the first thing about security work. Still, she had gotten through four years of college and so she set off bravely to tackle her new assignment.

After a few minutes of reading, she looked up and said, “ You mean I have to stay here until someone relieves me?” What if I have to go somewhere?”

“Well, that’s how security works. We cannot have open shifts. He gave her a serious look and said, “If you don’t like that, you need to look for another job.”

“No, I…I was just asking that’s all.”

Karen hoped she could avoid asking any more questions, but she needed to get on his good side. If indeed he had one, she mused despondently. Maybe if I could get him to talk about something other than security, I could make a better impression on him, she thought.

“You know, Sgt Smith” She began tentatively, I am a good bridge player. I understand you won a championship match in high school.”

“That’s right.” He said proudly.

“I was hoping you could give me some pointers. I also play chess. Do you play chess?”

“Well, yes I do, but I would concentrate on that book if I were you.”

“Yes, Sir.” She said dejectedly.

“Listen, from now on, you may call me Greg. May I call you Karen?”

“Oh, yes, please do!” She said, overdoing it a little bit.

The contents of the large loose-leaf binder were about as much fun to read as a federal tax form. She understood most of it though and just glossed over the things she felt unsure of. She wouldn’t risk asking a stupid question.

Greg walked over to Karen putting a heavy hand on her shoulder saying, “Do you have any questions?”

“No,” said Karen, a little too quickly.

“Good. I will take you on patrol shortly. We will lock the doors so no one can come in while we are away from the desk.”

“Are we allowed to do that?” Karen asked foolishly.

“We don’t have much choice. We have to do patrols and the company is paying for your training.”

Karen simply nodded.

Helix, Inc. had thirteen floors, an odd number for a medical lab. The halls of the facility were long, and serpentine and Karen felt spooked by the eerie red glow the exit signs cast in the hallway, and the faint chemical smell that permeated all the rooms she passed. She sincerely hoped there were no cadavers in the building. And with her luck, the cadaver room would be on her patrol route.

She smiled darkly as gruesome images of corpses and other dead things flickered through her mind’s eye.

“How do you like the tour, so far?” Said Greg.

The intrusion into her thoughts snapped her back abruptly into the present moment.

“Ah, oh, it’s fine. Will I have to do it alone?”

“Why? You are not afraid, are you?”

“No, I am not afraid. It’s just that I have never been in a medical lab before. Do they do anatomical research here?”

“You mean, are there any dead bodies hanging in the freezer?” Asked Greg, knowing exactly what she was getting at.

“Well, yes…for example.” She said nonchalantly.

“Come on, you’ll see.”

“No kidding, what kind of research is done here?”

“Pharmaceuticals mostly. Some cancer research, Covid-19 research, recombinant DNA…nothing to worry about though. It’s all contained. They also have a wing devoted to degenerative nerve diseases like the one Roderick and Madeline Unger had in the Edgar Allan Poe story, Ah, what was it… The fall of the house of Unger.”

Uh, huh” she said numbly, glossing over the mistaken reference to the Fall of the House of Usher.

There was a small room at the end of the corridor in the subbasement that reeked profusely of formaldehyde. Karen knew from college biology what she was likely to find in there.

“Do we have to go in there?” She asked, gesturing toward the door.

“Only if you want to!” Snorted Greg. “I am told people are dying to get in!”

“Ewe, yuck.” Karen moaned at the image he created and the obvious pun.

“Nah, they are mostly animal carcasses, maybe some people. I think they do experiments on dead infants, from time to time. Maybe they have Madeline and Roderick in there…”

“That’s just great.” She said, feeling a little creeped out by his continued references to the Edgar Allen Poe story.

The entire patrol took about an hour and fifteen minutes. The fledgling officer hoped she would remember which way to turn in this giant maze of corridors. She was not looking forward to navigating this scary labyrinth alone. “The things one does to make a living...” she thought silently and then drifted off into thinking about more appealing topics, such as her newest boyfriend, Christopher Martin. She loved his tall, thin body and his dream-inspiring blue eyes. Her knees felt weak every time he looked at her. Her mind’s eye pictured them together in some wildly romantic setting.

“Pay attention!” We are going to learn about keys now!” Snapped her new boss seemingly out of nowhere.

Karen drew in an exasperated breath.

“What?” Said Smith, have I interrupted your little fantasies?”

“Uh, no, not at all.” She lied, annoyed at his impromptu episode of sudden clairvoyance.

“Well then, what’s that breath for?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Why does it matter?”

“It’s your attitude that matters…”

“What do you know about my attitude?” She said and then regretted it.

“Look, missy, you don’t talk to me like that, or you will be out the door!”

Karen looked at him in disbelief at his over-reaction to her words.

“So, what’s wrong with my attitude,” she ventured.

“You are a slacker, that is what is wrong with your attitude.”

Karen could not believe this was happening. The tension started to mount in her lower back. The best thing she could do was be quiet and do what he says, she thought. She breathed softly and tried to keep a benign look on her face. This would be over soon, she hoped. But when she looked at her cell phone, she saw it was only 0130. She had five more hours of this.

“Listen, I’m going on my patrol. There is a coffee machine on the 6th floor. Would you like me to bring you a cup?” Her boss asked sweetly.

Afraid to refuse him, she simply nodded and said, “Sure.”

“It may be a while, ah heck, we are friends. I will get it first and then I will start my patrol. You take cream and sugar?”

“Please.” She said, made uncomfortable by his sudden chumminess.

Instantly she felt she had made a mistake by letting him do her a favor by getting her some coffee. Is that what he does? Rack up favors? Then she wondered if she was just being paranoid about him. He is just being polite, she thought attempting to calm herself.

Greg returned about ten minutes later with two large-sized coffees.

“Oh, shit!” thought Karen. Now he will want to hang around a while. She wanted to be alone so she could think about the best way to handle him.

“I hope you don’t mind if I join you.” He said sitting down beside her at the security desk.

“Well, I, no, uh, of course not.”

Greg put a hand to his knee with a slap and said, jovially, “So, how do you like our illustrious Lieutenant Beck?”

“Lieutenant Terry Beck, a rather mousy looking woman in her late thirties, was not by any stretch, an illustrious woman. She might have been somewhat attractive if she had smiled more, but she carried herself as if a life of militaristic routine and monotony had sucked any hope of a smile from her features. Still, she seemed direct and above board, so Karen liked her.

“Oh, she seems nice. “

I am her right-hand man, ya know.” “We go out for breakfast all the time.” He said.

“Have you known her a long time?” Asked Karen.

“Oh, well, she has only been here a few weeks, but we were pals from the start. In fact, I gave her the nickname, “Becky.”

Why is he telling me this? Is this his way of scaring me and keeping me in line? He is trying to establish his importance here to make me feel subordinate. But then she wondered again if she was just being paranoid about him.

“Did you know I work for a senator?”

“Uh, no, I didn’t”

“Yeah, it is volunteer work for now, but I know the senator and his family really well and he told me he would give me a paid job in his office if he got re-elected in two years. Greg beamed as he told her this.

“That’s great,” Karen said, laughing to herself. What do you want to do?”

“I would like to be a politician someday, I think.”

It’s going to be a rocky road for him, she thought. And probably a long one too. She hoped for her community’s sake that he would change his mind.

“Why someday?” She asked.

"I am about 27 credits shy of my degree.” I am majoring in psych with minors in human biology and political science.”

She started to tell him that she had majored in psych to try to establish some common ground, but then thought better of it and kept silent.

“How old are you?” She asked instead.

“I will be 29 earth years in September” he said a little strangely, but she brushed it off.

“How about you?”

“I will be 23 in March.” She said, not wanted to talk anymore. Her boss sensed this and left for his patrol looking slightly disappointed.

“See you in about an hour.” He said as he got into the elevator near the front lobby.

“Good.” She thought, now maybe I can get some reading in. She had brought a science fiction novel about authoritarian types from another dimension into heaven knows where. Stories about time travel and other dimensions were among her favorite science fiction themes. She wondered playfully if Greg Smith was really a fugitive from another dimension.

She had read about twenty pages when the phone at the desk rang. She picked it up tentatively and said, “Helix Security.” And hoped that was a proper greeting.

“Hello?” said a male voice on the other end.

“Yes, hello, may I help you?” said, Karen politely.

“Who is this?” said the caller plainly.

“This is Karen Angst at the Security desk.” Said Karen with mild irritation in her voice.

“Oh, you must be the trainee. I think Becky…I mean lieutenant Beck mentioned that you were on tonight. How do you like the job so far?”

“It is fine, I guess. Karen told the caller, a little less irritated now.

“I hear they put you with Norman Bates tonight,”

“How’s that?” She said with some concern in her voice.

“I mean, Smitty boy…you know, Sergeant Smith.

“Who is this?”

“This is officer Green, sorry about that.” I got off duty just before you came on. You may have seen me in the parking lot.”

“Oh, it is you!” What did you mean when you called him Norman Bates?”

“Oh, nothing, just messing with you, that’s all. Just for the record though, how do you like Smitty, though.”

“Well… he makes me a little nervous…he’s kind of creepy…thinks he’s so important and all. I think I can handle him though.”

“Do you believe he works for a senator?”

“I am not sure what to believe.” She said cautiously.

“Did he mention the lieutenant? “

“Yes, he did. “She said feeling spooked by officer Green.

“Does he get along with her?”

“He says he does. He goes out for breakfast with her every so often I think.”

“Do you think she likes him?” asked officer Green probingly.

“How would I know?” This conversation was getting weird, and she tried to disengage.

“I have to go now.” She told the caller.

“Where do you have to go.” Said the voice on the other end of the line.

“Is this you, Greg?” She ventured bravely.

“No…I told you, this is officer Green.”

“I have to hang up now.” She said and hung the receiver down gently on its cradle.

The skin on her forearms was covered with goosebumps and her hands were shaking ever so slightly. Deep down she knew that the mysterious caller had been her boss, but a tiny grain of uncertainty gnawed at her brain like a flesh-eating parasite. She reasoned that it might make him defensive if she mentioned the call when he got back from patrol, so she opted not to say anything about it. She realized at that moment that it was possible that she and her boss were the only people in the building. A tiny chill crawled up the base of her spine. A trembling hand found its way through her thick auburn hair to calm herself. Maybe it had been officer Green on the phone, she thought in vain. But still, she could not really convince herself that the caller had been anyone but Greg.

Smith returned about half an hour later, smiling and in a buoyant mood, as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired between them.

“How ya doing”” he said.

“Fine.” She said. “How was your patrol” She asked and then wished she had not.

“It was good, thanks. Anything happen while I was gone? Any visitors, phone calls, strange noises?”

“No. Nothing” she said hoping he would stop asking her questions.

“May I use the bathroom?” She said sweetly.

“Of course. It’s just down the hall to the left. You will have to turn the lights on. There is a switch on the right side of the wall, he said, tossing her the key to the lady’s room.

“Yeah, okay.” She said and walked away from him.

How much time could she kill in the bathroom, she wondered. Her watch said 0320. That’s three hours and forty minutes to go. She sighed. This seemed to be the longest morning of her life. She could only guess at what her new boss would do next. She thought she would almost rather go patrol the cadaver room than sit at the guard desk with Greg. “That’s it!” She said aloud. She would go on patrol and then go on her break. That would take care of about two more hours, she thought with some relief.

When she returned to the desk, she announced that she was going to go on a patrol and then go on her break.

“You only get a forty-five-minute break, you know.”

“I know.”

“You don’t have to go on patrol. Why don’t you stay here and keep me company?”

“Did you want to talk about anything in particular?” She asked him defensively.

Smith just grinned and said, “Well, we are going to be partners, and I thought we should get to know each other better, that’s all. “

Holy cripes! There was no getting away from this man, thought Karen.

“Listen, I will just do a quick patrol as much as I can remember, so I can get used to it, okay?”

“Suit yourself” he said.

She walked away from the desk as fast as she could without being obvious and headed for the elevators. She would go to the thirteenth floor where there was a small reception area where she could sit down. She picked a chair in the corner of the reception area and tried to relax. Being alone in this place frightened her, but she liked it a lot better than trying to navigate Greg’s crazy moods. After half an hour had passed, she became restless and pace around the room like a caged animal. Then she decided to look around and see what she would find. At the far end of one of the labs, she saw a beaker full of chemicals that had fallen on the floor. The shattered glass was strewn everywhere around the spill. Upon further investigation, she discovered two other beaker that had broken in a similar fashion. Suddenly an idea popped into her head: What if Segreant Smith had knocked them over and wanted to hide it. Maybe that was why he did not want me to go on patrol. That’s crazy, she thought. But then who else would have broken the beakers? Was there someone else in the building? Would Greg be thrown off balance if she mentioned it? What should she do, she asked herself pensively? Finally, she decided she had a duty to report it. After all, this could be a test of her abilities and she did not want to fail.

She went to the desk to report the incident to her supervisor. When she got back to the desk, she found Smith sitting beside it on the floor in a lotus position, mumbling to himself in what appeared to be a trance-like state.

“Sergeant Smith?” She said without thinking.

Greg just looked at her cross-eyed and said, “Who are you?” in a high-pitched voice that made Karen jump a little.

“Uh, it’s your friend, Karen” She managed.

“I have no friend Karen. “he said ominously.

Her throat went dry. “I just wanted to report a chemical spill on one of the floors.” She stammered.

“Chemical?”

“Yes, it was.”

“How do you know it was chemical?”

“Well, I thought it was.”

“Now look, if you don’t know what you are doing, you shouldn’t be here!” His meaty fist struck the desk with a sharp thud.

“Calm down!” She said, petrified at his sudden display of violence.

“You don’t talk to me that way, missy, or you will be out of a job!”

“But, but…I just said…”

Greg got up and started to dance and laugh hysterically. Then he began to sing:

I know a girl with auburn hair…

She’s going to get a nasty scare…

Oh, Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care…

He repeated this eerie litany several times while Karen stood frozen at the security desk. On impulse her legs started moving and she ran away as a metallic object flew passed her head and landing with a “chink” against the wall in front of her.

“Oh, God!” she breathed, turning pale with fear as hysterical laughter bounced hideously off the walls all around her.

She glanced at her watch and saw that the time was 0625. She ran into the lady’s room with a deep gasp of relief as she locked the door behind her, her heart pounding like a terrified rabbit.

“Oh, kaaaaren…” Greg’s voice bellowed.

“Go away.” She screamed.

Then she heard him singing again:

“I’ve got the key to the lady’s room…

You better prepare to meet your doom…

Doodah, doodah…

“Oh, crap.” Karen squirmed, realizing that she was not safe in the restroom if Greg had the key.

The next shift would be arriving soon, and she dearly hoped they would not arrive too late to help her. Maybe if she could distract him somehow. As she started to speak, she thought she heard footsteps coming toward her. Her heart skipped a beat. She heard Greg pleading for his life.

“No, please don’t take me… The other humans think I am one of them…The senator likes me. I have practically got the job…I just need more time. Please do not take me back to the detention center. I will get the DNA sequences for you. Please don’t take me away from here. I cannot go back there…pleeeeese!”

After hearing Greg’s desperate cries followed by some strange noises, she wanted to come out of the bathroom, but her fear warned her stiffly and she stayed inside the bathroom. Finally, she did emerge, and she saw no trace of her Sergeant or anyone else. She thought she heard a strange whirring sound in the distance above her, but she passed it off as a gust of wind. Slowly she walked back to the security desk and sat down. The 0700 shift arrived shortly after 0700, their eyes wide open as if they had seen a ghost.

“What happened?” They asked her. “Where is Sergeant Smith?”

“I don’t really know.” Fibbed Karen.

“We heard some strange noises and some muffled screams in the parking lot.”

Karen glanced down at her novel about people who snatched people from this dimension and took them away. The men who took Smith were probably from the nut house, she reasoned. She was much too tired to explain what had happened, so she told the other officers that Sergeant Smith was probably downstairs changing into his street clothes.

“Yeah, you are probably right.” Said her relief. “But what about those strange noises we heard in the parking lot?”

“I didn’t hear anything.” She replied softly. And she left the grounds of the facility never to return.

The End.